Photo courtesy of For Freedoms
This Juneteenth, learn where the modern justice system can improve by viewing the For Freedoms billboard campaign, Another Justice.
For Freedoms is an artist collective focusing on channeling art to create change and initiate important societal conversation. Its current campaign, titled Another Justice: By Any Medium Necessary, calls attention to the justice system and the need for reform. One installment of this national campaign is a billboard in Wilmington.
“Another Justice is a call to reconvene and reconsider what justice can be in a time of imbalance,” For Freedoms explains on its website. “The road to progress is always under construction, rife with bumps, potholes and hazards. In spite of—and because of—our collective and individual trauma, we invite you to vividly imagine what a just world would and could look like.”
The Wilmington installation is one of over 50 unique billboards across the nation. The purpose of each is to imagine what a “just world” could look like. Topics of the billboards range from things like ethics in technology and prison reform to racial injustice against minority communities including the Black and Indigenous communities in America. The umbrella of “justice” is undoubtedly wide, and For Freedoms aims to reach every corner of it with this campaign.
The billboard over Wilmington was created by artist Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter and photographed by Taisuke Yamada.
The message, “Protect Black Girls,” is an important one. With women being the fastest-growing incarcerated community in the U.S., and the Black community facing higher incarceration rates already, it’s easy to see where these statistics can lead us. Fighting alongside Black women and girls is a fundamental component of Baxter’s work. She explains in her statement about the piece that as a multidisciplinary artist, advocate and educator, she has worked to support Black women in many areas.
“Whether it’s creating works that support reproductive justice rights for incarcerated women or investigating the immediate and long-term impacts of adultification bias on black girls, my art and practice remains committed to utilizing my own personal experience as a point of reference to connect, engage and uplift the particular challenges faced by these two unique groups,” she says.
If you’re on the road this summer, keep an eye out for billboards from the Another Justice campaign. There are plenty of neighboring areas around the First State with billboards of their own, including multiple installations around Philadelphia, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Visit For Freedoms online to find ways to make a difference in your community and country. Art is a powerful tool when it comes to societal change, and Another Justice: By Any Medium Necessary is just further proof.
Related: Tara T. Green’s Book Details Alice Dunbar-Nelson’s Activism in Delaware
